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Project Y
An Art Gallery for R-MWC, Lynchburg, and Virginia
 In the
early winter of 1951 the campus of Randolph-Macon Woman’s
College was chosen to be the site of a confidential storage
facility for use by the National Gallery of Art in the event
of a national emergency. In exchange for the ownership and eventual
use of the structure the College agreed, in a contract signed
in March 1951, to maintain the facility and to make it available
for emergency use by the National Gallery of Art for a period
not to exceed 50 years.
Dubbed “Project Y” by Gallery administrators, the
building was constructed under the supervision of Gallery staff
and with the support of the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable
Trust. The structure was finished in the spring of 1952 and
cost just under $250,000 to build. Simply called “the
art gallery” by R-MWC faculty, staff, and students, the facility
was dedicated December 11, 1952.
Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, the National Gallery
of Art administrators conducted periodic inspection visits to
ensure that the building was well maintained and ready for use.
“Project Y,” which after 1951 was never publicly
acknowledged by the Gallery as its storage facility, was listed
in the Gallery’s emergency plans as a viable emergency location
as late as 1979.
In the 50s, 60s, and early 70s the College used the front rooms
of the Art Gallery to display portions of its notable art collection
and for special exhibitions. Inconvenient for faculty and students
to reach for classes and obligated for several decades to the
National Gallery in the event of a national emergency, the Art
Gallery was not fully utilized by the College until renovations
in the middle 1970s, funded by the National Endowment for the
Arts, made the exhibition rooms more practical, attractive,
and comfortable. Subsequent repairs and renovations in 1981-1982
and an endowment established in 1983 by the Sarah and Pauline
Maier Scholarship Foundation transformed “Project Y”
into the Maier Museum of Art known to today’s visitors.
Despite the turbulence of world affairs during the Cold War,
“Project Y” was never used by the National Gallery
of Art for storage. Today, however, the building in essence
does fulfill the best aspect of its original purpose, sheltering
a collection of art for the education and enjoyment of future
generations.
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